Just as Polymarket prepares for its return to the US, Kalshi is finally going on-chain through a new partnership with RedStone.
The first CFTC-regulated prediction market, Kalshi has partnered with oracle data provider RedStone to enable on-chain betting across over 110 networks including Ethereum, Solana, Base, and TON.
In a press release shared with The Defiant, RedStone said DeFi developers can use real-world data to create smart contracts that can read and react to real-world events, such as who wins an election or how the Fed moves interest rates.
However, at launch, the rollout will begin with three categories of data: the New York City mayoral election, Democratic candidates in 2028, and the number of rate cuts in 2025, with more markets expected to follow as developers begin using the data.
“Karsi has built one of the most trusted sources of regulated event data, but making that data available on-chain requires a robust oracle,” said Redstone co-founder Marcin Kazmierzak, adding that the company wants to make this data “as reliable and easy to build as price feeds, allowing developers to design financial applications that respond directly to real-world events.”
According to Kalsi Data, which tracks platform statistics, Kalsi’s trading volume exceeded $109 million on October 22nd, and its cumulative trading volume to date has exceeded $12 billion.
Kalsi received approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to operate as a prediction market in the US in 2020, but at the time the company had no clear crypto ambitions. Kalsi started accepting crypto deposits last year, hired John Wang as head of crypto this summer, and recently announced a serious commitment to crypto by raising $300 million from venture capital firms with strong crypto portfolios, including Paradigm, Sequoia, and Andreessen Horowitz.
Karshi vs. Polimarket
Until now, Kalshi’s data has been limited to its own off-chain platform, in sharp contrast to Polymarket, the world’s leading on-chain prediction market, which runs entirely on Polygon. Polymarket’s daily trading volume exceeded $126 million on October 19, according to data from Dune Analytics.
In a press release, Wang said that thanks to RedStone, builders of the Karushi ecosystem will be able to “benefit from both pull and push oracle models based on their needs, ensuring that Karshi receives comprehensive data feed support.”
The partnership comes as Calci’s main rival, Polymarket, prepares to make a comeback in the U.S. after acquiring QCX, a CFTC-approved exchange and clearing house, in a $112 million deal in July.
So far, Karshi is the only regulated prediction market actively operating in the country, but the return of Polymarket is likely to heat things up even more.
In the crypto industry, Kalsi has been met with skepticism over his past feud with Polymarket, including reports that he paid influencers to pursue Polymarket’s founder and CEO.
But Polymarket is no stranger to controversy either. Earlier this year, a market controversy over whether Ukraine’s president was wearing a suit sparked a debate about how trustworthy decentralized oracles really are.